Hello Family!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! My first Thanksgiving out in the field was cool, but definitely not the same as a Thanksgiving at home. I did get a chance to make a few of the things from Mom's package which turned out pretty good. Hector wanted me to make sure I gave Mom a big "muchas gracias" for the hymnal that she sent him. He enjoys it very much. We had two meals that day, the first of which was at a member's house in Weslaco. They had quite a few people over and as a result, had prepared quite a feast. They had three different turkeys, one traditional, one smoked, and one fried, all of which managed to get eaten. After the meal in Weslaco, we went over to Hector's house and had a Mexican Thanksgiving dinner, which is very different from an American one. The only thing that was the same was the turkey. The rest as all different; rice, spicy stuffing, beans and chilis being some of the foods I remember. I was sad I didn't have a copy of the Magna Carta to read to continue Dad's tradition. Tragically, it isn't a part of the missionary library. Maybe if I had one in Spanish I could get away with it.
The Christmas season has already started here with most people having all of their lights and reindeer up. We ended up doing a bit of service with our elderly neighbors, helping them put up their Christmas lights and all. In fact, now that I look at it, there's a giant Christmas tree, two wreaths and a garland with bows in the college computer lab I'm sitting in right now. The only place that gets more into Christmas than here might be the BYU campus.
Hector was confirmed during Church yesterday, and had a great experience with it. He asked me to confirm him, which I was happy to do. I was a little bit scared because of the blessing part of it in Spanish. The actual confirmation and the giving of the Holy Ghost isn't too hard for me because it's all rote. Thanks to my many years of memorizing quotes, I can get those down in just a few minutes. But, everything turned out all right and I don't think I made too many mistakes during it. I'm getting pretty comfortable with my Spanish here. The only thing that I'm really scared about now is getting too comfortable and plateauing in the language. I just need to keep focused on my studies and speak as much as possible in Spanish so I can keep learning.
I was able to send a few pictures home in this email which will hopefully make their way to the blog. One is a picture of my district, which will soon be changing, sadly. Two are pictures from Hector's baptism and the last one has a bit of a story. Most people here in the valley are Catholics, and there are very few that don't believe in God at all, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Nonetheless, when I saw that billboard on the side of the highway I was pretty surprised, considering you'd probably never see one like that in Virginia.
I'm glad that our family is receiving many blessings. Mel is being watched over I'm sure as her pregnancy proceeds, and I know that the Lord will provide for both mother and child. I'm also very glad to hear that Christian is okay after his accident. A rolling car is a very dangerous place to be, and I'm amazed and very grateful that he and his friend managed to avoid any injuries and not involve anyone else in the accident. I'm pretty sure our family has some guardian angels flying around with all of the protection we've had.
Today is the last preparation day before transfers, which will happen tomorrow. I'm staying another six weeks at the least here in Donna, but my companion Elder Navarro, will be leaving for Laredo. My new companion, Elder Reiner will be coming into the area. It'll be my first time taking over an area, which makes me a little bit nervous. Everything will turn out fine, I'm sure. We're a little bit low on investigators right now, but with a bit of effort hopefully that will change.
I hope everyone is doing well at the beginning of this Christmas season and takes some time everyday to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. In this season we commemorate His birth, and we can all take the opportunity to grow a little closer to Him. A short scripture study in the morning, a sincere prayer or just keeping Him in your thoughts are all things we can do to make him a bigger part of our lives. So, during this Christmas season I hope everyone can take a little more time to get away from the lights and presents and do just a little something to remember our Savior and Redeemer. I hope everyone continues to do well and has a great (and safe) week.
Love,
Elder Wood
